Denver Nuggets' Danilo Gallinari out for season with ACL tear

Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari is wheeled off the court after suffering a knee injury in second quarter Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks at the Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari is officially out for the rest of the season with a torn left anterior cruciate ligament, the team announced Friday.

It is a grim confirmation of what most everyone expected would be the case after watching Gallinari get carried off the court Thursday night during the second quarter of the Nuggets' game against the Dallas Mavericks. The diagnosis was made Friday after a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test revealed the ACL tear.

He will miss the rest of the season.

Gallinari's loss is a big blow to a Nuggets team that hit its stride after the all-star break and has risen to third in the Western Conference. The Nuggets, who have clinched a playoff berth, are also without starting point guard Ty Lawson, who has a heel injury but is expected back near the end of the regular season. The Nuggets' final regular season game is April 17, against Phoenix.

The production hit is significant. Gallinari is the team's second-leading scorer at 16.2 points per game, the team's third-leading rebounder at 5.2 rebounds per game and, on a team that struggles to shoot free throws, is the Nuggets' second-most reliable free throw shooter, at .822.

With Gallo out, reserve forward Wilson Chandler will likely start and get substantially more minutes. Making the decision to start Chandler should be easier given the play recently of rookie guard Evan Fournier. If there was any significant worry about a huge drop in perimeter production off the bench in moving Chandler into the starting lineup, Fournier could help cushion that.

While he didn't play particularly well against the Mavericks — his first experience playing the second game of a back-to-back — Fournier has averaged 13.3 points on 58 percent shooting from the field, 2.0 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. But most importantly, he's given the Nuggets another outstanding free throw shooter. While he's shooting just 72 percent from the line, that's up dramatically from earlier this season. Fournier has made his past 14 free throws.

Reserve forward Corey Brewer also figures to get more minutes.

Whichever way the Karl plans to go, his Nuggets have six games to pull everything together and make it work to a satisfactory level before the playoffs begin.

The Nuggets face Houston on Saturday in a game that could be a first-round playoff preview. The Rockets are one game behind Golden State for sixth in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Nuggets are trying to hold off both the L.A. Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies for third place in the conference.